SC Deems West Bengal’s Suit against CBI Probe Without its Consent ‘Maintainable’

The Supreme Court on Wednesday held as maintainable a suit filed by the West Bengal government, which alleged that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) continued probes into various cases despite the state’s withdrawal of general consent on November 16, 2018.

A bench of Justices B.R. Gavai and Sandeep Mehta stated that the suit shall proceed in accordance with the law on its own merits. The court scheduled a hearing for August 13 for the framing of issues.

The apex court had reserved its verdict on the maintainability of the suit on May 8. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing West Bengal, argued that once the state withdrew its consent on November 16, 2018, the Centre could not permit the probe agency to enter the state for investigations.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, argued that the Union government or its departments do not exercise supervisory control over CBI probes. The Centre had raised preliminary objections about the maintainability of the lawsuit, contending that there was no cause of action against the Union of India.

The West Bengal government filed an original suit in the Supreme Court under Article 131 of the Constitution, alleging that the CBI continued to file FIRs and proceed with investigations despite the state withdrawing general consent for the federal agency to probe cases within its jurisdiction. Article 131 deals with the Supreme Court’s original jurisdiction in disputes between the Centre and one or more states.

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